


Kagami Taiga's Fan Club, And How He Got Rid Of Them

by Shinimegami



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fake Dating, Fluff, Ignores Final Game, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-12-23 03:12:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11980881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinimegami/pseuds/Shinimegami
Summary: Kagami cleared his throat, not making any effort to hide how uncomfortable he was with this whole thing. “I, uh…have a bit of a fangirl issue.”“Wait, that’s it? That’s what you called me here for?”“Well, yeah…”Kise sat back in his chair with a look Kagami didn’t exactly know how to read before he started laughing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo...it's been a hot minute since I've written anything. Not sure how quickly I'll be able to get chapters out for this one so it's gonna be whenever I can work on it/feel like working on it/have ideas. Sorry if it's a bit sloppy starting out, I had a bit of a time getting where I wanted to go in the first chapter, but the following ones are coming together better. At least in my opinion, anyway. 
> 
> Enjoy! Or don't! I don't know your life!

Kagami wasn’t sure _when_ this started happening, but he had a feeling that it didn’t just start all at once. 

After all, nothing really works like that, right? Granted, it _felt_ like it, though. Nobody ever counted Kagami Taiga for exactly being observant where most things were concerned. For all he knew it could have started with one or two girls showing up and he wouldn’t have noticed. It just felt like one day he just showed up at practice to find a large group of girls waiting there to watch. Granted, they didn’t get very far before coach shooed them out of the gym, telling them that this was a practice closed to anyone who wasn’t joining or already a part of the team, and a chorus of disappointed sounds followed, fading to a slight muffle as she shut the doors to the gym behind them. 

Coach dusted off her hands as she approached the stage, gathering up her clipboard. They were probably going to discuss the upcoming year, their game schedule to the Inter High, and new training menus at some point during this practice, but instead of just moving onto that, Kagami’s curiosity about what just happened was getting the better of him. 

“Coach? What the hell was that all about?” Kagami asked, a forked eyebrow quirked. “Did the whole team get new girlfriends or something?” 

Aida Riko gave Kagami what could only be described as a deadpan look before speaking. 

“You really are a Bakagami, aren’t you?”

“Wha-? HEY!” 

Kagami was just about to demand what the hell she meant by that before he felt a nudge to the back of his knee, causing it to slightly collapse on itself, breaking him out of the moment and causing him to slightly lose his balance. Kagami straightened up and whipped around to see the calm gaze of his shadow, who was also wearing a pretty deadpan look (though, Kagami could argue that was pretty much the normal thing for him). 

“What was that for?!” 

“I believe what Coach was saying was they were here for _you_.” Kuroko said, unfazed by Kagami’s angry demand for an explanation as to why he thought he’d poke him in the back of the knee, nearly causing him to fall over. 

“I was,” Riko confirmed, not looking up as she flipped through papers on her clipboard. “They were chattering about you when I came in.” 

Kagami blinked, not quite sure how to take that, almost like it took the meaning a couple seconds to actually sink in.

“ME? Why?” 

There had literally been no interest like that before expressed by any of his female classmates, at least, not that Kagami knew of. If there had been, Kagami guessed that he would have been totally oblivious to it. He didn’t have time for that kind of thing anyway. Basketball, as always, took center stage in his life and if they wanted to win, they had to work as hard as they possibly could. Whatever energy he had that wasn’t being devoted toward basketball was being devoted toward studying, not necessarily because he wanted to, but because if he didn’t keep his test scores up, he’d have to retake the tests…and that meant missing games. There just weren’t enough hours in the day for whatever the hell a relationship would entail. Not that he really knew what that would be anyway.

“Well, I mean, you’re the ace,” Koganei interjected with a shrug, wheeling out the cart full of basketballs in preparation for practice. “And this is a now nationally recognized team. That’s bound to get you some kind of attention, right?” 

Kawahara groaned behind him as he rolled out the portable score board. “How is it that Kagami gets all the girls?” 

Kagami turned to him, stiffening a bit. “I don’t want ‘em!” 

“You mind if I take a few off your hands then?” 

Coach sighed and rolled her eyes before interrupting. “Can we please get started on practice? We’ve got a lot to do today rather than worry about Kagami’s love life.” 

“Love life?!” He didn’t have one! Didn’t need one either!

“The next person to mention it is running laps for the rest of practice. Get moving on stretches, we’re running drills and practicing free throws today when the others get here.” 

“Yes, m’am!” They replied in unison, knowing that she would damn well make good on the promise of making them run laps if she heard even another whisper about the whole thing, and once their captain arrived, he would probably be even more interested in upping their punishment. In all honestly, Kagami was kind of thankful that the conversation was cut short.

He sighed and shared a look with Kuroko who gave him a tiny, barely-there smile in reply before they both took off to go stretch. Something about that made things feel just a little bit better. 

However, this wasn’t the last or only instance of this happening, and as the days went on and more practices followed, the crowd seemed to…grow a bit…and grow even louder and more vocal for his attention each time. Thankfully Coach was able to close the doors on them every time, but it was getting more and more difficult with every passing day. What was more, it seemed like Coach was even kind of punishing him for it, pushing him a bit harder than usual during practice to repay him for the trouble of dealing with a throng of admirers before each and every practice. It wasn’t his fault! Kagami didn’t want this kind of attention. He just wanted to play basketball!

Kagami slumped on a bench after one particularly grueling practice, he and Kuroko the only ones left to clean up, the gym practically empty. If it wasn’t their turn on the schedule, Kagami would have sworn this was Riko getting back at him yet again.

“What am I gonna do? I’m gonna die at this rate.” He complained as Kuroko put one last stray basketball into the cart. 

“I sincerely doubt Kagami-kun will die,” Kuroko replied, a slight hint of amusement in his voice before his expression slipped into something more serious. “But this situation is growing more and more troublesome. I doubt Coach will be able to contain the crowds much longer…” 

Kagami slumped further and shoved a water bottle to his mouth, taking a long drink before speaking again. “What am I supposed to do? I don’t control them. They just…show up!” 

He was really at a loss. He wasn’t sure how to behave around one girl let alone a whole crowd of them vying for his attention. 

Kuroko frowned and looked thoughtful for a moment. “ Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience in dealing with this. I go unnoticed by most of everyone in general, so I’m not quite sure what should be done. As much as I regret saying this, I think we may have to opt for the nuclear solution.” 

Kagami blinked. “Nuclear?” 

Wordlessly, Kuroko nodded going and grabbing his phone from his bag, opening it up and selecting someone from his contact list. Kagami watched him warily as the phone rang, wondering where this was all going. 

“Hello? Kise-kun?”


	2. Chapter 2

He really, really didn’t want to do this. As much as his…relationship with the Generation of Miracles had grown to be a lot better than before, Kagami was still loathe to ask them for help with anything. They were supposed to be equals and that meant beating them on the court, not…asking them for advice! That said, Kuroko insisted that Kise might have been able to help them and given how Kise was in the modeling business with his own group of rabid fans, Kagami…kind of couldn’t argue with the logic there. 

Kise had agreed to meet them at Maji Burger. It wasn’t exactly a short trip from Kaijou so they had to meet somewhere in the middle. Before Kagami knew it, he was slumped down in a booth with his usual pile of burgers on his tray, both he and Kuroko sitting on the same side of the table as they waited. He was actually about to ask Kuroko if he was sure about all of this when he heard a familiar voice call out. 

“Kurokocchi! Kagamicchi!” Kise called, waving from across the restaurant. Apparently Kagami hadn’t seen him come in because he was already holding a tray with food, making his way to their booth. Kise was general sunshine with people who he recognized as being on his level, Kagami had come to realize. 

Kaijou’s ace plopped down into the booth seat across the table from them with a smile. “How are you? You sounded rather serious when you called me on the phone, Kurokocchi.” He said before taking a sip of his soda. 

“We’re fine, but it appears Kagami-kun is having a rather pressing issue.” Kuroko commented. Before Kagami could say anything to that, Kise spoke again, turning his attention to him. 

“Is that so? Don’t tell me you’ve already hit a wall this early in the year, Kagamicchi.” Kise said, his voice turning to that amused, almost challenging kind of tone that Kagami had grown rather familiar with in his time dealing with the Miracles. 

“A wall? Pfft. You wish.” Kagami snorted in reply. Couldn’t help himself. They still riled him, even to this day. 

“Actually,” Kuroko interrupted. “Kagami-kun has had a problem with something much different than basketball. Neither of us are rather experienced in dealing with such a thing, and you were the only one we could think of who is.” 

Kise raised an eyebrow. “Really? What is it?” 

Kagami cleared his throat, not making any effort to hide how uncomfortable he was with this whole thing. “I, uh…have a bit of a fangirl issue.” 

“Wait, that’s it? That’s what you called me here for?” 

“Well, yeah…”

Kise sat back in his chair with a look Kagami didn’t exactly know how to read before he started laughing. 

“What’s so funny?” 

“I actually agree with Kagami-kun. I fail to find what’s so amusing about this situation.” 

Kise eventually gathered himself for a moment, trying to catch his breath before speaking. “It’s…it’s just…when you called, not in my wildest imagination did I think this would be the problem you needed help with.” 

Kagami wasn’t entirely certain if he should be insulted or not. 

Kise took a moment to compose himself before leaning on his hand, elbow on the table. “I suppose it’s not terribly surprising though.” 

“It’s not?” 

“Well, no. You’re not exactly hard to look at, Kagamicchi. I mean you’re not on _my_ level or anything, but you’ve got a charm to you. I’m sure the abs are a plus.” 

Kagami frowned and was actually about to reply to that when he felt the gentle jut of an elbow into his ribs from his shadow seated next to him. He sent a look Kuroko’s way but decided that maybe it wasn’t worth it to go there either. Kuroko had a point even if he chose to express it by shoving his arm into his side.

“Not to mention, you’re the ace of a team that’s nationally ranked now,” Kise continued looking thoughtful. “Some people are just attracted to that sort of thing. Success can be very appealing.” 

“Okay, but how do I get them to go away? They’re showing up at practice and getting in the way. I think Coach is reaming me during drills because of it.” 

“Well, see, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Kise said, popping a french fry into his mouth. “As a model I’m taught how to retain fans. Photobook sales kind of depend on it. I have to kind of keep an approachable appearance to me without getting too close to any of them. If I got rid of fans, I’d probably get dropped by my agency.” 

“Oh.” 

Kuroko, who had peacefully returned to sipping his vanilla milkshake during the course of this conversation, pulled his mouth away from his straw, a small frown taking his features. 

“While that’s understandable, I’m not sure it’s very helpful. I’m sure there’s ways you have to handle your fans if you want to make it to your own practices without interruption.” 

Kise rubbed the back of his neck and looked a bit sheepish. “Well, that’s the thing…Kaijou kind of made allowances for that back before they recruited me for their school. They kind of expected it. Any other fan interactions I kind of handle on a script given to me by my agency.” 

“A script?” 

“Yeah. Nothing lengthy. I just thank them for their continued support, remind them of photobook release dates, graciously accept gifts, sign autographs and kind of go on my way. Small talk and stuff like that.” Kise shrugged. “It’s an arms length kind of situation but that’s what I have to do if I wanna keep up the illusion of being available…” 

Kise paused for a moment, a look dawning over his face that honestly made Kagami curious. 

“That’s it!” 

“What’s it?” Kagami asked. “You have an idea?” 

“Just date someone!” 

“What do you mean just date someone?! That’s something I’m trying to avoid here!” 

“I feel like that _would_ be rather counter productive, Kise-kun.” 

“Nono, just hear me out! One of the big things of being in the model or idol industry is that you have to remain or at least appear available. Interest tends to drop off to nothing if they perceive the person they’re after is already spoken for. It’s about the illusion that they have a chance at being with you even if that chance never existed.” 

“So what you’re saying is that if Kagami-kun dates someone, a lot of this…following he’s obtained might lose interest and stop showing up to practices?” 

“There’s a good chance!” 

“But I don’t want to date any of those girls!” Kagami protested. This was getting out of hand, fast. He saw Kise’s point in all of this, but at the same time this was type of situation he wasn’t looking for in the first place. 

“Well, then…” Kise said, looking thoughtful again. “What kind of person _would_ you like to date, Kagamicchi?”

Kagami felt a rush of heat to his face, kind of caught off guard by Kise’s question. Why? He wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now, dammit! 

“I don’t get how that matters—“ He started before Kuroko spoke up again.

“If Kise-kun has a point he’s trying to get to, we may have to humor him.” 

Kise’s face fell a little at Kuroko’s statement as if to say ‘Gee, thanks.’ but he didn’t say much else, turning his attention back to Kagami. Kagami sighed. He didn’t like where this was going but…alright. 

Kagami’s face burned a bit hotter, and he hunched into himself as he spoke. This…wasn’t something he tended to think about normally so talking about it was just…awkward. “I guess if I had to date someone I’d want them to be elegant or graceful. Probably smarter than I am. Someone who can talk me down from making split second decisions…” 

Thankfully no comments from the peanut gallery on that one. 

“Probably someone I could talk to about anything. Someone I could trust. And they’d have to like basketball, because there would go like…50 percent of our conversations…” 

That was really all he had and honestly that was a lot deeper than Kagami had intended on going, but it just kind of poured out. He wasn’t sure what he expected after admitting all that, but he did know what he _didn’t_ expect was Kise to start laughing again. 

“Ugh, what’s funny now?” Kagami couldn’t help but keep the irritation out of his voice at this point. He’d been a little more open than he’d intended with all of that so now having Kise laugh at him was kind of hitting a nerve. 

“Nothing, nothing at all!” Kise replied between giggles. “Those are all perfectly understandable things to want out of a relationship but…I just thought it was really funny…all those things you said sound like Kurokocchi.” 

Kagami’s jaw dropped open and he glanced over at Kuroko who seemed far more interested in drinking the rest of his vanilla shake than this entire conversation suddenly, wearing a blush that would have been virtually undetectable if it weren’t for the tips of his ears going pink too. In all honesty, Kagami was kind of surprised he didn’t look over to just see him gone. As for himself, Kagami was sure that if he could blush more than he already was…he probably would have. However before either of them could say anything more Kise spoke again, realization dawning over his features. 

“Wait…guys…hear me out on this, I have an idea. You could just date each other!” 

Kagami couldn’t help but sit there and look dumbfounded at the idea but Kuroko finally pulled back from his straw again to turn to him. 

“Kagami-kun, I believe Kise-kun is under a lot of stress with the start of the new year and must not be in his right mind. We should go and let him enjoy his dinner.” 

“Guys no, I’m serious. You don’t have to _actually_ date each other. You could just…you know, fake it until the coast is clear.” Kise tried to explain just as Kuroko almost made a move to get up from the booth. 

Both Kagami and Kuroko paused and Kagami raised an eyebrow, looking over at his partner. Kuroko sighed and settled back in, giving Kise a look that indicated that he was skeptical, but still listening. 

“Think about it. There’s no commitment on Kagamicchi’s part, his fangirls lose interest because he’s dating someone, and the best part is if you stop faking at some point after things seem in the clear and…I don’t know…pretend to break up, they won’t come back because they’ll think Kagamicchi’s gay. Everything can go back to normal and you guys can go back to playing basketball like always.”

There was a pause between both him and Kuroko as they glanced at each other again, neither entirely sure of what to make of Kise’s entire scheme. One mental conversation between them both and eventually Kuroko sighed and looked at Kise.

“That sounds…insane. But maybe insane enough that it might work.” Kuroko nodded slowly as if he were still trying to comprehend how this was the outcome of their conversation. “We will…consider it. Thank you for the advice…as…unconventional as it was.” 

Kise just smiled brightly as if he hadn’t just come up with the most convoluted, strange solution to their problem on the planet and popped another fry in his mouth. “You’re welcome!”


	3. Chapter 3

“I hate to actually say this, but I think Kise-kun might be right.”

Kuroko’s statement seemed to come out of nowhere on their way back from Maji Burger, startling Kagami out of his own train of thought and breaking the peaceful quiet of their walk home. 

“Wait, seriously? I thought we kind of agreed to humor him and then find our own work around.” Kagami replied. Granted, that was all unspoken but kind of understood at the time, which was…kind of the reason Kagami didn’t chime in when Kuroko told Kise they’d consider it. 

“I understand that, but honestly I keep going over it and it may actually be the most effective way to deal with the situation. Every other idea that I’ve considered would either put Kagami-kun in a negative light, or cause other unintended complications.” Kuroko said with a small frown. “There’s less variables in Kise-kun’s plan.” 

“So what? We’re really doing this? Pretending to date until my fan club backs off?” Kagami asked, raising an eyebrow and looking over at his shadow. Call him skeptical if you wanted, but this seemed…kind of ridiculous. 

“It’s worth trying as it’s the most stable plan we have.” 

“Are you sure about this? I mean there’s gotta be a better plan out there somewhere.”

“Alright. Do you have any better ideas?”

Admittedly, he didn’t. Kagami stopped walking and sighed. “You really want to go through with this?” 

Kuroko stopped too and looked at him for a moment before replying. “Yes. If it will get us back on track and give Kagami-kun peace of mind it’s at least worth a shot.” 

“Okay…well, then I have some questions…”

“Go ahead.”

“Alright…so say we do this…fake relationship thing… Should the team know it’s all an act? How many people should be in on this?” 

Kuroko seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head. “The fewer people that actually know, the better. I love our team, but they’re not necessarily the best actors.” 

Kagami rubbed the back of his neck. Kuroko had a point. He couldn’t see Seirin doing anything to sabotage this plan, especially since it was essentially so they didn’t have a squealing mob of girls to work around every practice, but he also couldn't see them exactly being great at keeping things a secret either. Things could come out at the worst possible moment if more people outside the both of them (and Kise) knew. The fewer involved, the better. 

“You have a point. How are we going to get it out there, though? Even if we were _actually_ dating, I couldn’t see us being all over each other in public.” 

“Gossip travels fast,” Kuroko replied. “We tell one or two people, possibly our team, that we're dating and there’s a good chance it’ll be all over the school by the end of the week. We could possibly also take a more subtle approach and allow others to infer what they want, but I’ve always preferred a more direct route.”

Fair enough. Kagami wasn’t sure anyone inside their circle of friends would _intentionally_ go around telling people, but things had a way of…getting out. That and…Kuroko was right. Given enough reason to jump to that conclusion, people would make up their own stories. 

“Alright,” he sighed again, resigned to the fact that this would be the way they had to handle this. “Fine. I guess you and I are fake dating, then.” 

“Just remember to remove the ‘fake’ from your sentence when you talk to others about it.” Kuroko teased, amusement dancing behind his eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Kagami said as he resumed walking again, Kuroko joining him.

As they walked, Kuroko quietly and quickly slipped his hand into his, fingers threading together. For a second it felt as though Kagami’s heart had stopped.

“Kuroko…what are you…?”

“Just practicing, Kagami-kun. We have to get used to things like this if we wish to be convincing.” 

“Right.” 

That was fine, he supposed, but Kagami was having a hard time understanding why his face was growing so warm, or why his heart was pounding in his chest. What was even more concerning was the fact that Kuroko’s hand just seemed to fit _perfectly_ in his own. 

Kagami cleared his throat and looked away, unsure of what to say as they continued their way back. The quiet wasn’t necessarily _uncomfortable_ but was it him or was there an…odd sort of tension that wasn’t there before Kuroko had grabbed his hand? 

“Kagami-kun is blushing.”

“I am not!” 

Kagami whipped his attention back to his shadow for a moment at this accusation (which was totally right, he was only a slight shade lighter than his own hair right now), but not so quickly that he missed the slight blush over the bridge of Kuroko’s nose and tips of his ears. 

Maybe this would take some getting used to for the both of them.


	4. Chapter 4

Kagami sighed as he closed his locker, rolling his shoulders. He and Kuroko were in the locker room, getting ready for another afternoon of practice, the only ones there at the moment, but that seemed to make him more anxious than had they arrived with everyone in there.

“Why am I so nervous?” He complained, grabbing a towel, throwing it over his shoulder to take it with him and turning to Kuroko. “I mean, it’s not like we’re actually dating so telling everyone should be easy, right?”

Kuroko looked up from the bench he was sitting on, tying his shoe. “Well, we have to behave as though it’s really true, and reactions to this sort of thing can…vary.” He said with a small frown. “I doubt our team won’t support us though, whether true or untrue.”

He supposed Kuroko had a point. Maybe it was just that neither of them knew what to expect. Not to mention Kagami had no idea what it would take for them to be fairly convincing to the rest of their team. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He sighed again, waiting as Kuroko carefully finished getting ready before they both made their way to the gym. He kind of hated the idea of lying to them, but they had to do this so they could all play in peace. It was for the greater good, wasn’t it?

On their way in, Kagami spotted his…fan club standing by the doors to the gym. Seems like Coach had already pushed them out and into the hall again, a group of them giggling as he and Kuroko passed. Kagami gave Kuroko something of a panicked look before Kuroko murmured a hushed “Ignore them.” and they passed into the gym. 

He really, _really_ couldn’t wait until this nonsense was over with.

Turns out, most of the team was already waiting, most of them in the middle of stretches as Coach went over the new training menus they’d be starting today. Kagami couldn’t help but internally wince. Coach knew what she was doing, but he had a feeling they were all going to be sore as hell for the next week if they were starting a new regimen. 

“Kuroko! Kagami!” Hyuuga called to them as they approached. “Get started on stretches. We’ve got a lot to do today.” 

Kagami internally panicked again, but for a totally different reason this time. How would they even bring this up? Just out of the blue? Like that? He gave Kuroko something of a look to indicate how very lost he was, and Kuroko, being Kuroko, took this as his cue to take the initiative. Figures. 

“Actually, Coach, Captain…Kagami-kun and I have something we would like to announce.”

Riko looked up from her clipboard and over at Hyuuga who shrugged. “Okay,” she said, turning her attention to the both of them, the rest of the team surrounding them doing the same. “What’s up?” 

“Well…see…the thing is…I…we’re…” Kagami stumbled over his words, unsure as to why _now_ he was getting tripped up by having everyone’s attention. His heart was racing again and he wasn’t exactly sure why. It wasn’t true, so what was the big deal?

Before he could get any further, Kuroko reached over and took Kagami’s hand, threading their fingers together in the exact same way he’d done the night before. Instead of calming his heart, it raced a little bit more and before he could really stop himself, he found himself gently squeezing Kuroko’s hand. 

What was even more curious was the fact that not only did Kuroko squeeze back, but when he did, Kagami actually felt a bit better.

“What Kagami-kun is trying to say is that we’re dating now,” Kuroko said, manner direct as always. “I suppose it may not be terribly important overall to the team, but we decided that it would be best if we informed everyone all the same. It will not effect how we play.” 

Kagami wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting, but he could definitely say what he _wasn’t_ expecting was the entire team to be entirely straight faced for a moment before their coach spoke up. 

“Oh,” she replied, looking over at Hyuuga who once again shrugged before returning to stretching. “Okay.” 

“Wait, that’s it? Okay?” Kagami was actually kind of in disbelief. 

“Not exactly the most shocking thing we’ve heard. Even just today.” Hyuuga responded rolling his shoulders. 

“Looking back, it’s kind of obvious, really…” Furihata chimed in from the floor where he was doing leg stretches. “You both spend a lot of time together.” 

“Not to mention you ignored all those girls looking for your attention, Kagami. At first I didn’t get why, but now it makes perfect sense!” Kawahara added. 

“Then there’s that whole creepy ‘looking at each other and having an entire mental conversation that no one can hear but you two’ thing.” Hyuuga said in a grumble, continuing to stretch out his shoulders and rolling his neck.

The rest of the team nodded sagely in agreement in this statement as though it were the most obvious thing in the world and Kagami couldn’t help but feel his face growing red. Were they actually serious with this? 

“I mean, I called this almost a year ago,” Izuki said. “You two are so in sync with each other your shoes even wear out at the same time.” He paused for a minute then perked up, breaking out a small notebook that he carried with him seemingly at all times.

“You could even say you two are sole mates!” 

“Izuki, run fifty laps.” 

Kagami almost didn’t know how to take all of this, stealing a small glance over at Kuroko who was also blushing, but to a much lesser degree. All that stuff their team was saying…it was kind of true, wasn’t it? Kagami had never thought about it that way before. Seemed like Kuroko was kind of feeling the same way he was about their reaction. In a moment of awkward assurance, Kagami gave his hand another gentle squeeze. As…interesting as this had all been, at least it was more of a positive response than he could have ever expected and…this just meant they were one step closer to solving his fan problem, right?

Coach shrugged. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with game or practices, it’s fine.” 

“Just keep your hands to yourselves, and there won’t be a problem.” Hyuuga added, giving them both a warning glare that most of the team was familiar with, one that said ‘Don’t test me on this or you won’t live to regret it.’ 

With that, naturally, he and Kuroko let go of each others hand.

“By the way,” Koganei said, coming back from setting up the portable score board. “Who had today in the pool?” 

“I think it was Izuki. I should make him run another fifty for that alone.”

“WAIT, THERE WAS A POOL?”

The team laughed and Coach rolled her eyes before blowing her whistle. “Can we focus, please? We have a lot to do before the Inter High, and not a lot of time to do it in.” The team chimed in with a “Yes, m’am!” and she then turned her attention back to Kagami and Kuroko. 

“I’m happy for you two, but start on your stretches so we can get moving. Don’t make me send you out to run laps with Izuki.” 

Both Kagami and Kuroko gave a ‘yes’ in unison and Kagami glanced over at Kuroko who returned his look with a small smile before they both got started. 

Well…so far so good…


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guy, just popping in to say thank you for all the comments. I don't often reply because I don't want to clutter the comments section with me lamely saying "Thank you" over and over, but I do read and value every single one. 
> 
> Even if some of your guesses wind up being way, way off ;)

“…Not exactly the response I was expecting.” Kagami said as he slumped into his seat with a huge tray of burgers at their usual table in Maji Burger. Kuroko sat across from him, sipping his usual vanilla shake with an even expression, looking as though he was considering his statement carefully before speaking. 

“Honestly, I’m not sure of what I expected,” he admitted, looking down at his cup and idly toying with the lid a bit. “But getting the team’s thoughts were certainly interesting.” 

“No kidding…” Yeah, he could say that again. Kagami supposed it wasn’t too much of a surprise that they were pretty accepting, but what caught him off guard was how _unsurprised_ they were. None of them batted an eyelash at the idea of them dating, each of them with a ton of reasons why it all made perfect sense to them. 

Call Kagami dense, but he hadn’t really taken notice of how _actually_ close he and Kuroko were until now. 

“I suppose nothing they said is actually untrue,” Kuroko continued, finally looking up at him. “We do spend a large amount of our time together.” 

“Yeah, and we do kinda do that weird telepathy thing. I never really thought about it, but…it happens kinda frequently.” 

Kuroko hummed thoughtfully as he took another sip of his milkshake and Kagami decided to start unwrapping a burger a bit absentmindedly. In all honesty, it seemed like neither of them really knew what to _do_ with this information. It was a good thing overall, wasn’t it? They were best friends, they meant a lot to each other, and that helped them on the court more times than they could count. Simple as that. Not to mention the fact that it also made it easier for everyone to buy the idea that they were dating. 

Still something felt…different. It was the same kind of feeling he’d gotten when Kuroko first reached for his hand the night they decided this was the plan they would follow. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling, but there was clearly something there, and Kagami was having a hard time putting his finger on what that was something was. 

“It’s…not a bad thing though, right? Us being this close?” 

The feeling that hung between them kind of made it so Kagami felt like he had to ask. Honestly, all of this just made him a bit…curious as to how Kuroko was feeling now that the team had kind of put things they’d both originally just kind of accepted in front of them to examine.

Tension seemed to slip from Kuroko’s shoulders and he pulled back from his milkshake to give Kagami a look that could only be read as sincere fondness. Something about it made Kagami’s heart do that weird, racing thing again. 

“Of course not, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said. “I know I’ve said so before, but I’m still very glad I met you. Sometimes I wonder what I would do without you, and I have a very hard time coming up with an answer…”

Kagami felt his face flush at this rather candid response, deciding to take a bite of his now-unwrapped burger, hoping that would somehow cover the fact that he was probably blushing pretty hard. Man, he was starting to see why their team was totally unsurprised when they told them that they were dating. We’re they often like this? If so…how the hell did he wind up missing it? 

“You always say such embarrassing things,” he complained between bites, his tone having no sharpness to it in the slightest, probably giving him away. “But being really honest? Yeah. Me too.” 

It was Kuroko’s turn to blush, his shadow pulling a similar move, returning to his shake, almost as though he'd forgotten the fact that even if he hid his face, the tips of his ears often gave him dead away. Even when trying to hide his blush, Kagami could see a slight, pleased smile around the straw in his mouth. There was something…endearing about seeing that. 

Maybe the team seeing them as this close wasn’t really that bad of a thing. After all, they _were_ close, there was no denying that. It wasn’t wrong, and Kagami had to admit, he found himself appreciating the moments where they didn’t really have to say much but they immediately got what the other meant, especially since he wasn’t that great with words anyway. 

Not to mention…Kagami admittedly had never really had anything _this_ close with another person. Not even Tatsuya. 

Maybe Kuroko didn’t necessarily need to know that, though. 

At least, maybe not right now. 

As soon as the embarrassment and blushing had subsided for them both, Kagami set down his burger, giving Kuroko a curious look. “You think now that the team knows, my… _fans_ will figure it out and buzz off?” 

Kuroko frowned and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think that may be a bit of wishful thinking, but right now there’s no telling. I can’t see anyone on our team saying anything to anyone else, at least not on purpose. It may slip and then spread that way. We may have to wait and see. If not, we may have to be a bit more…obvious in our approach.” 

Kagami raised both eyebrows in a look of surprise. “Obvious? What do you mean by obvious?” 

A slight blush, one that you would have missed unless you were really up close, or unless you were like Kagami and were well versed in reading his expressions, bloomed over Kuroko’s face. Even if he was as dense as everyone accused him of being, Kagami understood the general meaning there, his own blush coming back in full force. 

“Oh.” 

“However, it may not come to that,” Kuroko said. “I suppose it’s a situation we will have to deal with when it arises.” 

Kagami nodded and returned to stuffing his face with another burger. He wasn’t entirely sure exactly what Kuroko meant by being more obvious, but he got the idea. 

The strange thing was, it didn’t really bother him aside from the idea of being so open with something like that being…a little embarrassing overall. 

But like Kuroko said, it may never come to that. So for now, he wasn’t going to worry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys. So...this chapter. I'm sorry if anyone was waiting, I just had a ton of stuff going on. I'm...a little concerned about the pacing on this and whether or not some of the reactions are realistic, but it was what I had in my head and I promise there will be more to it than just this. 
> 
> Once again, thanks for all the comments. I don't usually reply because I don't wanna clutter my comments section, but I do read and value them all. Thanks again for reading.

The next two weeks went on pretty much normal. Well, kind of. The team didn’t really make mention of his and Kuroko’s relationship, and unfortunately, a lot of Kagami’s fan club seemed to try to show up at practice all the same. While Kagami was…actually pretty thankful, but not really surprised, that his team respected his and Kuroko’s privacy, this kind of…made things a bit tricky. Most of their time was spent with their team or each other so short of announcing it on the roof (Which was kind of…ironic, given how that was the threatened punishment for losing their tournaments. How would Coach handle the whole naked confession thing if he and Kuroko were dating anyway?), he and Kuroko really didn’t have a way to kind of…get it out there that would seem even halfway normal.

Kagami never had a whole lot of contact with the girls. It was annoying that Coach had to shove them out of the gym at almost every practice, but they seemed to keep their distance. At least, for awhile anyway. It would figure that something like that just wouldn’t last. It was at the end of the second week that things started to take a bit of a turn. 

Normally, he and Kuroko would just eat lunch in their classroom, but it was a nice day so they decided to opt for eating on the roof. It was peaceful for a bit until the door to the roof swung open, a group of girls, one holding a bento appeared. Most of the girls hung back as the girl with the bento approached him. Kagami threw a quick glance to Kuroko, who frowned a bit, the both of them sharing a silent conversation about how their plan appeared to not be working yet before she spoke. 

“Kagami-kun?” She said, looking a bit nervous. “I made a bento for you. Would you please accept it?” 

Shit. Shit. Shit. What should he do? He wasn’t intent on hurting anyone’s feelings but he didn’t want her getting the wrong idea either. Almost instinctually, Kagami reached out and wrapped his hand around Kuroko’s. Maybe she’d get the idea if he rejected her offer this way. 

“Ah, sorry but I can’t. I brought a lot of food with me today already.” It wasn’t the greatest excuse but it’d have to do. Maybe she’d get the hint. 

The girl’s face fell a bit. “I see. Well, that’s okay.” She said, sounding even more nervous, and a bit dejected. Kagami felt a bit sorry, but what else could he do? “I’ll…I’ll see if my friends want to share. Bye.” 

She took off as quickly as she showed up, her friends following with a bit of chatter as the door to the roof closed behind them. Kagami couldn’t help but cringe. 

“Okay, so that was super awkward.” He said with a sigh. Kuroko nodded. 

“It was. Although, it did bring up a concern that I don’t believe either of us realized before now.” 

“Huh? What’s that?” 

“Did she even notice I was here?” 

Shit. 

Kagami groaned. “I hadn’t even thought of that.” 

“Admittedly, I’d even forgotten about it too. I’m not certain she even realized you were holding my hand.” 

“Probably not. This is going to be tougher than I thought.” 

“Kagami-kun?”

“Yeah?”

“You…you can stop holding my hand now. They’re gone.”

Oh. 

Kagami let go of Kuroko’s hand quickly as though it were burning him, feeling his face go red for what felt like the millionth time in these past two weeks. He’d completely forgotten that he was doing that, the feeling of Kuroko’s hand in his being…natural enough that he didn’t even really think too much about it at this point. 

“Ah…sorry.” 

“It’s okay.”

That tension that’d come up a couple times the past few weeks was back in full force and Kagami still couldn’t put a finger on why he felt like he did in these kinds of moments. Did Kuroko feel it too? He wasn’t sure. Better change the subject and get back on track.

“So…obviously your low presence is a problem to our plan, so what do we do?” He asked, rubbing the back of his neck, looking a bit sheepish.

Kuroko took a sip from his juice box and frowned. “I’m not sure. Clearly, we have to be more obvious. I thought that may be the case, but I hadn’t considered my lack of presence until now.”

“Yeah, but what the hell does that mean? I mean, what do I gotta do before they get it? Make out with you in front of them?”

Kuroko was silent for a moment and since it seemed like he was thinking something over, Kagami chose this time to take a drink of his milk before he spoke again, staring out over the roof absentmindedly, also trying to think of some way to deal with this nonsense.

“We may have to accept the fact that it may have come to that, yes.” 

Turns out, drinking before getting Kuroko’s answer seemed to be a mistake. In a moment of surprise Kagami spit out his milk, droplets of it scattering over the roof before he turned back to Kuroko wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. 

“Wait, are you serious?!” He said, incredulous to the fact that Kuroko actually took his offhand, sarcastic statement to be some kind of actual plan.

“The girls are already intently focused on you. With my low presence, there’s a chance that most subtle actions will go unnoticed. We also can’t rely on our team to get the information out. This is the one, and potentially only, case where their respect for us isn’t exactly a good thing. I’m not suggesting we actually have to ‘make out’, but a decent kiss in front of them may get the picture across more clearly. They can’t really ignore me at that point.”

Kagami wasn’t sure his face could burn any hotter than it was right now, but Kuroko didn’t seem much better. He was a slight shade of pink, looking down at the juice box in his hands. 

That tension somehow felt worse, but Kagami couldn’t argue with the facts that Kuroko had just put out there. He had to wonder how they hadn’t considered this in the first place, but then again he supposed he could chalk that up to the fact that he noticed Kuroko so often these days that it sometimes slipped by him that others often didn’t. Sometimes he completely forgot that others missed that he was there unless they were playing basketball where that was a large part of Kuroko’s ability.

“Okay, okay…so say this is the plan we go with. Where would we even do this?” 

He could have sworn Kuroko’s blush grew darker at the question. 

“I would assume the best place would be outside the gym where the girls usually wait. Most of them will be there, and those that aren’t will hear about it later…” 

“Oh. Right.” 

They were both silent for a moment and Kagami felt…nervous. He wasn’t sure why he felt nervous, there could be several reasons for that, but it was…unsettling to feel this nervous around Kuroko, whom he was usually completely comfortable around.

“I…uh…I guess that’s what we're going to do then?” 

Kuroko nodded, finally looking at him. To anyone else, Kuroko would look his usual even tempered self, but Kagami could see that behind his eyes, some nervousness lurked as well. Kagami took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Alright. They’d do what they had to so things could go back to normal. 

Oddly enough…Kagami wasn’t put off by the idea. Just…nervous. He wasn’t sure why, exactly. 

“So…before practice then?”

“Yes. Before practice.”

Oh boy. Maybe he should have been more worried when Kuroko had said that they may need to be a bit more…obvious.

That nervousness stayed with Kagami the rest of the day, and from what he could tell, it wasn’t much better for Kuroko either. They both seemed to be a bit on edge and the rest of the day kind of dragged as a result. They were really about to do this, weren’t they? Wouldn’t that make things…weird between the both of them? Kagami hoped not, but there was no telling. They’d have to get over it if they wanted this plan to work. 

He couldn’t believe they were going to do this. 

When the school day ended, they were both ready for practice and on their way to the gym, the both of them kind of silent. This was probably the first time that Kagami had ever felt…awkward around Kuroko, but he figured it was pretty obvious as to why. He had to wonder how Kuroko was feeling about this. Was he grossed out? Kagami wasn’t sure. He wasn’t really, and he couldn’t actually understand why. He was just…nervous and a bit embarrassed that they’d have to make such a public display of affection. 

When they reached the doors of the gym, they found his usual fan club standing there giggling to each other and talking. “Hi, Kagami-kun!” One of the girls called, the giggling ramping up a bit. 

“Uh…hi,” Kagami replied before looking back over at Kuroko who nodded. 

“Should we go in?” 

“Yes,” Kuroko said, looking a bit hesitant and expectant at the same time. Kagami took a deep breath. He almost couldn’t believe they were about to do this, but if anything would get the girls to back off, it had to be this, right? 

He reached out and wrapped an arm around Kuroko, pulling him close, trying to ignore how nervous this whole thing made him as he leaned in, lips landing somewhat awkwardly onto Kuroko’s. After a moment of adjustment and closing his eyes, he felt Kuroko kiss him back and somehow, Kagami felt the nervousness leave him and…something warm in his chest taking it's place. He was vaguely aware of hearing the group of girls murmuring as Kuroko reached up and placed a hand on his face. All the tension seemed to slip away and Kagami found himself pulling Kuroko even closer to him. 

That…felt better than he thought it would. More than it was supposed to. 

It felt great, actually, and Kagami wasn’t quite sure of what to do with that.

When they pulled back, Kagami had completely forgotten they had an audience Kagami looking at Kuroko, who looked a bit dazed but not…unhappy or uncomfortable with the situation. Eventually, he gave him a small smile that made Kagami’s heart race again. Wow. They really just did that, didn’t they?

However, the moment was broken when one of the girls spoke up in the background.

“Wait, is that why he didn’t accept my bento?” 

Kagami looked up at the group of girls and back to Kuroko, feeling his face grow hot with a blush as he let go of his waist and stepping away, clearing his throat as he made his way to the gym doors. “We, uh, we should get to practice.”

Kuroko nodded and followed him, also wearing a blush. This one was much darker than the ones Kuroko usually sported. “Yes.” 

Either way, hopefully, that got the point across nice and clear. The only problem was, this brought up some other questions that had absolutely nothing to do with the girls who showed up at every practice, and everything to do with his shadow. 

He’d have to deal with those later, though. They had to get to practice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. Short chapter this time. After all, we know it's not one of my fics where Kagami and Kuroko get together without me having Kagami AGONIZE over what to do when he realizes he just might have a thing for Kuroko. 
> 
> I got a more lengthy, plot moving forward type of chapter in the works, promise.

A sigh filled his ears as he found a soft spot on a pale neck, gently sucking a mark there that was sure to stick around for at least a day or two. Small but strong fingers carded through his hair as Kagami pinned Kuroko back against the wall, caging his shadow against it with his arms. Kuroko seemed to melt at the contact, the wall starting to become the only thing holding him up as he murmured his name. Kagami responded by kissing a trail up his neck and along his jaw to finally meet his lips in a deep kiss, bodies pressing together as Kuroko wrapped both arms around his neck. 

The only thing Kagami could hear right now was Kuroko’s soft, satisfied noises and his own heartbeat in his ears as they kissed. He almost couldn’t believe this was happening, let alone the fact that he was really, _really_ enjoying this…and it seemed like Kuroko was too. Actually, that might have been a bit of an understatement, as one of Kuroko’s arms slipped from his neck to slide down his chest and stomach and slowly slip under his shirt…

Kagami’s eyes shot open, only to be met with the darkness of his bedroom, as a slow realization of what had actually happened dawned on him. Another dream. In fact, it was the fourth one this week. Ever since that damn kiss in front of the gym…

He sighed and turned to lay on his back, rubbing his face before letting his hands fall to the mattress again. He could barely make out the texture of the ceiling through the dark as he stared up at it, wondering what the hell that was about. It’d seemed so _real_ , and in all honesty, the past two times he’d had a dream like this, he found himself…just enjoying it. 

After the kiss in front of the gym, the numbers of girls who showed up to try and see him had lessened a great deal. They were no longer hard for Coach to deal with, especially as word spread that he was dating his teammate. However, it seemed like Kagami had traded one problem for another. Sure, his fan club had dwindled now that they thought he was actually dating Kuroko, but now he was having these…dreams and he couldn’t quite get them to stop. 

It was weird to have intimate dreams about making out with your best friend, wasn’t it? And it was even weirder to like them? Granted, it was freaking weird to pretend to date your best friend to get a bunch of girls to leave you alone in the first place, but at least that was _on purpose_. He couldn’t imagine how Kuroko would feel if he ever found out that he was dreaming about him like this, or that he actually found himself _enjoying_ it the last few times. 

Kagami groaned and pulled a pillow over his head, trying to will all sorts of thoughts away. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself. After things started to settle, he and Kuroko had agreed that they’d keep up the charade for a bit longer just to make sure that the coast was clear before laying off and eventually just letting things go back to normal. That was the thing, though, things _weren’t_ on their way to normal for Kagami. 

He had to face facts. He liked that kiss, and not that he’d ever admit anything about it aloud, but he liked the dreams he was having over it too. What the hell did this mean? Did…did he actually _like_ Kuroko like that? In a romantic kind of way? 

This was all Kise’s fault. He was going to wring the blond’s neck the next time he saw him. 

Kagami sighed again, pulling the pillow off his head and taking a deep breath. No, this wasn’t really Kise’s fault, as much as he’d like to blame him for this situation he was in now. Really, he couldn’t say for sure that this wasn’t a thing long before he’d even gotten a group of girls tailing him to practice. When _had_ this all started? He wasn’t sure, but their team and even Kise had pointed out they already had all these traits that people who were already together had, so who was to blame?

He didn’t have an answer for that, but he supposed at this point it really didn’t matter. 

Kagami at the very least understood that were two things he had to deal with here. One, he liked kissing his best friend. Two, he wanted to do it again. The question was, how should he deal with it? Should he tell Kuroko? Would he be freaked out? Would it damage their friendship? Should he just…enjoy the whole fake dating thing while it lasted and hope that these feelings would subside by the time they called it off? 

Should he just kind of bury things and wait for it to all blow over? 

It sucked not having answers. After all, he’d never felt this kind of urge or want with _anyone_ , so for it to pop up with Kuroko made everything that much more complicated. His shadow was important to him, attraction or not, and Kagami didn’t want to risk losing Kuroko as a friend if he wasn’t feeling this way too. Hell, Kuroko was the reason Kagami was who he was today. Their time spent together, the conversations that were spoken with just a glance or Kuroko saying his name, the way they always seemed to be on the same page no matter what…he didn’t want to lose all of that over some stupid urge to kiss him senseless again.

The question really was, would he at least be able to keep his cool around his shadow at school tomorrow? At the very least, he had to try.

Either way, Kagami decided as he continued to stare at his bedroom ceiling for a bit longer that there was no way that this was going to get solved tonight. He should probably try to get back to sleep. He’d have to sort through his feelings a bit more thoroughly when he didn’t need a full night’s sleep to get through the next day. He really wasn’t up for getting detention for falling asleep in class again.

Giving a huff, he turned on his side, rearranging his pillows again for what seemed like the fortieth time in the past ten minutes. Settling in again, he ignored the small voice in the back of his head that actually kind of hoped another dream would pop up if he managed to get back to sleep. That really wasn't helping anything right now, but he supposed after all his thinking on this whole thing, he really couldn't do much to stop it at this point. 

The only thing he could do was hope that he at least slept until morning.


	8. Chapter 8

A basketball bounced and then rolled across asphalt as Kuroko chased it down. They’d just gotten out of practice, but since Kagami seemed so…jumpy for some reason, Kuroko suggested that they both go put in some extra practice at a nearby court, hoping that might calm his nerves. He could tell something was going on with his light as he’d been acting strange all day since they’d met up to walk to school, but Kuroko hadn’t figured out exactly _why_ yet. 

He supposed it could be their situation. While they’d gotten many of Kagami’s admirers to stop showing up to practice, there were a few stragglers. They’d both decided that they’d continue to pretend to be dating for the time being until the message was received loud and clear, and everything could return to normal. Those circumstances alone were unusual… 

And then, there was also the kiss.

Admittedly, that hadn’t originally been part of the plan as neither of them were the type for overt public displays of affection in general, but Kuroko ultimately couldn’t see any other way around it. The girls were so focused on Kagami that anything subtle would have just slipped past them when you added his lack of presence to the mix. On top of that, Kuroko had a feeling that they would have just completely ignored or not believed Kagami if he just _told_ them. Kissing was the quickest, most efficient way to handle it, removing all debate about Kagami’s relationship status. Maybe it had been an insane idea, but…this entire thing had been a bit insane, hadn’t it? 

It would be expected that maybe those things would make Kagami a bit unsettled. What Kuroko hadn’t expected for himself was enjoying that kiss a lot more than he felt that he was supposed to or even allowed to. It wasn’t something he’d had a chance at examining all that intensely, but…it stayed in the back of his mind.

Kuroko tossed the ball back to Kagami, watching his light catch it and make another shot, sinking it in effortlessly. Really, at this point, it wasn’t so much practice as the two of them spending their afternoon just playing, but it was a bit of normality that Kuroko was sure the both of them welcomed. Kagami was jumpy and Kuroko felt…well, somewhat confused. It was nice to have a moment where things seemed not so out of the ordinary. 

He was just about to run and get the ball again to try and make his own shot when he saw a generally annoyed look spread on Kagami’s face and seconds later heard a familiar voice that immediately explained his light’s look of irritation. 

“Oi, Tetsu.”

Kuroko turned around to see Aomine standing at the gate opening of the court, leaning against one of the metal poles of the gate. He was actually genuinely surprised to see Aomine here, given how this court was somewhat out of the way of Touou. 

“Aomine-kun…what brings you out this way?” Kuroko replied evenly, ignoring the sense of rising irritation that he could feel starting to radiate from Kagami. Kagami and Aomine got on a bit better than they did at the start, but rivals were still rivals, Kuroko supposed. 

Aomine shrugged. “Been hearing things. Wanted to see if I could catch you two and see if they were true.”

Kuroko exchanged looks with Kagami, the both of them confirming that they were fairly sure what Aomine meant by “things”, but Kuroko figured it would be best to confirm anyway. Who knew what else was out there, after all. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Little birdie told me you and Bakagami are an item now.” 

Just as they’d both suspected. Kagami tensed for a moment, and Kuroko glanced back over almost expected him to explode at Aomine for at the very least the nickname, but he was surprisingly silent for a moment, a meaningful pause seeming to transpire between them before Kuroko looked back at Aomine. 

“I’m going to assume Kise-kun told you.” 

That would have made the most sense, by any case. News may travel fast, but Kuroko couldn’t see it leaving Seirin unless Kise thought he was helping make it _really_ stick by spreading it around to maybe some of the other Generation of Miracles.

Either that or he was potentially trying to mess with Aomine-kun. Kuroko wouldn’t have really put it past him. 

“Yeah. I mean, I gotta admit, it didn’t really throw me when he told me, but I wanted to see if it was true myself.” Aomine said, straightening up with a shrug. “You two are so damn obvious it’s not like it’d really be a surprise or anything, though.” 

It was interesting, hearing Aomine say things that others had said as well. That it wasn’t a surprise. That he saw it coming. It didn’t irritate Kuroko. Not in the slightest. He was well aware that he and Kagami were close and he treasured their relationship. It was just…fascinating to get an idea of how others saw them. 

You could even say it was a bit enlightening. 

Now the question was, did they let Aomine believe that they were dating or let him in on their plan? Aomine wasn’t exactly what Kuroko would consider a good actor, but he also didn’t see him purposefully trying to sabotage them. He and Kagami exchanged another look. 

“We’re not, actually,” Kagami replied, moving to go retrieve the basketball which had rolled to a far side of the fence, choosing to place it somewhere close to them. “We’re pretending so I can shake this group of fangirls who have been following me to practice and causing all kinds of problems.” 

Something about hearing that reiterated made Kuroko’s heart feel like it had dropped a bit. He had no idea what he was expecting. It was the truth, and at the end of the day, Kuroko supposed it didn’t make much of a difference if Aomine knew the truth. Even if Kagami had just kept up the facade of them dating, it wouldn’t have made that any truer, would it? Somehow hearing it out loud though didn’t feel very good. 

“Really? You, with fangirls? That’s weird. I have a hard time believing that.” Aomine replied with a deadpan, unamused look, digging at his ear with his pinky finger. 

“HEY!” 

Kuroko shook his head. “Actually, Kagami-kun is telling the truth. They’ve been interrupting practices, and more recently trying to find him at lunch.” 

“Huh. Go figure.” Aomine said. “Then again I suppose it’s just as well. Had you two actually been dating I would have asked you what the hell you thought you were doing, Tetsu.” 

“SHUT IT, AHO.” 

Kuroko gave a small sigh, but couldn’t help the look of slight affection at Kagami’s response as the redhead now returned to where they were standing, the basketball in hand before he gently tossed it to Kuroko who easily caught it. 

“Look, think whatever you want,” Kagami said to Aomine before he turned his attention back to him. “I’m gonna go run and grab a sports drink from a vending machine. You want anything?” 

Kuroko gave a small smile and nodded. “I would also like a sports drink, please.”

“Ay, if you’re buying, I’ll take one!” 

“Buy your own damn drink!” 

Kagami put a hand on Kuroko’s shoulder before he moved to head for the vending machines, the very brief, even slightly stiff movement causing something in him to warm for a moment. Ever since their kiss, actions like this seemed to have a much different effect on Kuroko, and he had to admit…that may have been the reason he was so confused at the moment. 

There was a moment of quiet as he and Aomine stood there, his former teammate looking as though he were trying to break Kuroko down piece by piece to figure him out. 

Finally, after a few moments, Aomine quietly spoke. 

“You’re not really faking it, are you, Tetsu?”

Kuroko’s eyes widened.

“How did…?”

“Please, you were my shadow for years. You think I can’t tell? You even looked hurt as hell when he told me you guys were faking it to get rid of his annoying fans. If anything, I wouldn’t have believed the whole fan story if it hadn’t been for the way you winced at it.”

Kuroko’s jaw dropped open as he tried to find words to counter what Aomine was saying and couldn’t come up with any. Was that was this all was? The warm affection that often bubbled up in his chest toward Kagami? The fact that even just _talk_ of contact or romance, fake or real, made him blush? 

The fact that, even if it was just one more time…he would gladly kiss Kagami again? 

He had no defense for any of that, and Aomine knew it. 

“So, you gonna tell him or are you just gonna let this thing ride out and never say anything?” Aomine asked, raising a thin, navy blue eyebrow. “Because the latter doesn’t really sound like the Tetsu I know.” 

“I’m not quite sure yet,” Kuroko said, voice much softer than usual. “Usually I can read Kagami-kun better than anyone, but I have no idea how he feels.” 

“And you’re afraid that if you tell that idiot, he’ll reject you and it’ll be friendship over, right?” 

“Potentially.” 

Aomine gave something of a grunt in reply. Kuroko wasn’t necessarily expecting too many words of wisdom from his former light (Sorry, Aomine-kun), but he waited as it appeared that he was thinking things over. 

“Well, I gotta admit, Tetsu, this has me stumped. I’m not good with shit like this.” Aomine admitted with a slight shrug. “But what I will say is that I’ve never known you to not go after something you wanted. That and, don’t go making too much of this, but while Kagami may be a freaking idiot and I may go in on him because he’s my rival, he’s still a decent guy. I don’t think he’d go do something to hurt you on purpose.” 

Kuroko’s expression softened. Aomine was right. If anything, Kuroko knew that if Kagami didn’t feel the same, he’d probably still do his best to keep their friendship and their partnership on the court going. The only question was if he were to tell him, how would he go about doing it? 

“Besides, if he does hurt you, I’ll kneecap him,” Aomine said in a way that sounded joking but also made Kuroko not actually put it past him. 

“Please don’t,” Kuroko replied with a small, fond smile. 

“No guarantees.” 

By this point in the conversation, Kagami came jogging back, two sports drinks in one hand, coming to a stop by Kuroko to hand him one. Kuroko gave him a small smile and a quiet “thank you” before idly opening his drink. 

“Well, I guess it’s up to you,” Aomine said with another shrug, apparently not worried about the fact that Kagami had returned. Before Kuroko could say much else, the sound of a text tone came from the jacket Aomine was wearing, causing him to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. 

Aomine groaned. “Ugh, I forgot I promised Satsuki I’d go shopping with her. Unless I wanna listen to her complain for hours I gotta go. I’ll see you, Tetsu. Next time I see you, I’ll be beating you again, Kagami.” 

Kagami swallowed a large gulp of sports drink just in time to get out a “You wish!” as Aomine turned around to walk off, waving them off nonchalantly. 

“Idiot,” Kagami muttered. If one thing hadn’t changed, it was his rivalry with Touou’s ace. “What was he talking about anyway?” 

Kuroko sighed but gave a small smile and a shrug. “It was just Aomine-kun being Aomine-kun.” 

Granted, Kuroko had a lot more to think about thanks to Aomine, but that would…have to come later. if he did indeed choose to tell Kagami about his feelings, he needed to sort through them first, even if he had a pretty good sense of what they were. 

“Should we continue playing?” 

It seemed like a lot of the tension that Kagami had been carrying since Aomine arrived, especially after he’d started asking questions, slipped away and Kagami smiled. That warm, bubbly feeling inside returned to Kuroko in a rush, seeing that smile as his light spoke, looking relieved at maybe a return to something a bit more normal for them. 

“Definitely.”


End file.
